German patent DE-AS 26 05 148 already specifies a breast prosthesis of this type which, however, only has one shell shaped component welded in plastic films and made of a meshing two component silicone rubber material. Women in general greatly appreciate this breast prosthesis, since the cured two component silicone rubber material corresponds in its weight approximately to the weight of the natural breast tissue and since the unit made of the two component silicone rubber material manages to simulate in almost a perfect fashion the actual conditions of the natural breast due to its soft elastic responsiveness and mobility. Breast prosthesis of this type are inserted in brassieres for support. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,172,298 and 4,249,975, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose this type of prosthesis.
In order to assure the most natural appearance of the breast prosthesis when inserted in the brassiere, it is common practice in a breast prosthesis of the type described above for a body forming the convex exterior side to be made of a soft set material while a flat shell shaped body forming the back side of the prosthesis is made of a slightly harder set two component silicone rubber material.
The result of this design is that the elastically soft and due to its weight slightly sinking convex external side of the breast prosthesis is supported by its rear side made of stiffer material.
The disadvantage of the known breast prosthesis type due to the inner layer or inner shell of harder two component silicone rubber material is that this inner shell presses on the sensitive scar tissue area and it does not adjust in the required protective fashion to that area.
Thus the invention is directed to solving problems with external breast prosthesis known prior to the invention. These prostheses have not been adaptable to fit irregularities in the chest of the mastectomy patient, particularly as modern surgical techniques remove less tissue and leave more irregular chest wall contours. Although matching the chest wall contours has been accomplished by custom-molding of a prosthesis for each patient, a need exists for a prosthesis that has desirable characteristics of appearance and touch, but can adapt to the chest wall contours of many different patients.
It is the task of this invention to develop a breast prosthesis of the type specified above whose wearing comfort is enhanced so substantially that it adjusts ideally to the scar tissue area.